Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.
In general having a balanced diet to get enough vitamins and minerals from daily diet is preferable over getting them from supplements. The daily dosage of vitamins and minerals is defined in terms of Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). When people do not eat or get a healthy diet every day, taking a nutrient supplement that contains the recommended daily allowances for vitamins and minerals becomes necessary. Taking dietary supplement is particularly useful for people who have a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Common deficiencies that people may develop include deficiencies of Vitamin A, folic acid, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and zinc.
Iron and various other minerals are not always easily absorbed by the body. Hence, the salts of vitamins and minerals need to be chosen based on their enhanced bio-availability.
In many parts of the world there is shortage of electricity and availability of running water and hence the gravity fed water purifiers which do not require the use of electricity and running water supply have become very popular. Providing known amounts of vitamins and minerals by dosing controlled amounts of the dietary supplements to water is very useful and hence designing dietary supplement dosing devices which can be incorporated into the gravity fed water purifiers would be highly beneficial. In doing this one will ensure pure drinking water and at the same time deliver the dietary supplement.
Dosing water with a nutritional amount of vitamins and minerals may render the water with a disagreeable aftertaste, a change in colour of water and also impart an odour which is objectionable. One will like to have a glass of water without these organoleptic negatives. It is thus a challenge to design a device that purifies water and at the same time delivers the dietary supplement at a beneficial level without any organoleptic negatives.
There have been several attempts to provide water compositions fortified with vitamins and minerals while keeping in mind the need for making it free of objectionable colour, odour and taste.
Our co-pending application 747/MUM/2012, discloses a dietary supplement dosing device capable of releasing predetermined amounts of dietary supplement to water from a source of dietary supplement in the solid form. This application addresses fortifying using vitamins and minerals from a source of dietary supplements in the solid form thereby solving the problem over another co-pending application 2863/MUM/2011, where there is disclosed an on tap dietary supplement dispensing system wherein known amounts of dietary supplements are added to water in the liquid form. Both these applications address the problem of organoleptic negatives while fortifying water with vitamins and minerals. Providing the dietary supplement in the solid form solves the problem over the liquid dosing system where there is increased weight of the material during transport and storage or the chances of the liquid spillage during consumer handling.
FR2809330 (Inst Francais Du Petrole, 2001), discloses a device for measuring doses of a reagent by dissolution in a liquid flow, comprising a magazine containing a stack of tablets of reagent resting at the lower open end of the magazine on support means enclosed in an annular liquid feeding chamber, comprising orifices forming radial liquid jets on the base of the lower reagent tablet, the tablet supporting means forming liquid outlet means. The invention is particularly applicable to chlorination of drinking water.
The existing dosing systems are designed differently for dosing from a solid source as compared to the liquid source and can be used only with one type. Therefore there is a need for a dosing system to have a flow distribution mechanism that can be used irrespective of whether the source of the dietary supplement is in the solid or liquid form.
The present inventors have been able to design dosing systems that do not require any movable flow control element. This enables the device according to the present invention to function irrespective of the dosing source and at a much wider and higher range of flow rate of 500-3500 ml/min compared to throttled flow rate of 400-1200 ml/min and significantly reduces the number of parts like a float or a spring controlled valve based mechanism to control the flow rate thus saving on material usage and making it economical. The absence of flow control element enables reduction of the size and to design a compact unit which also has more tap clearance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dietary supplement dosing device capable of releasing predetermined amounts of dietary supplement to water, from a source of dietary supplement provided either in the solid or liquid form, to enable dosing controlled amounts of the dietary supplement of water upon being dispensed for consumption.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dietary supplement dosing device that does not require any movable flow control elements like float or a spring controlled valve based mechanism but can effectively dose controlled amounts of the dietary supplement to water that is dispensed at a wide range of flow rate and higher range of flow rate of 500-3500 ml/min.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide water free of colour, taste and odour and with beneficial amounts of dietary supplement.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a dietary supplement dosing device to be fitted to the faucet of a gravity fed water purification device.